Thanks for praying!!!

Prayer warriors,

Thanks so much for praying for me as I was preaching today in a Russian Baptist Church plant that only began last November. It has been a marathon day (after a restless night) and it was evident you were praying. The service started late because Pastor Andrei was scrambling around trying to locate a translator. The lady he had secured for this project realized she had already made a commitment and could not do this. I spoke to three individuals in succession trying to figure out who could translate literally minutes before the service was to begin. I had probably 2 minutes to speak with a young man named Maxeem who was scared to death but agreed to translate for me. I gave him a copy of my notes and he studied them while the music was going on and then he translated for me. He had never done this before and neither had I so we both had quite an adventure. I felt so badly for him because I at least knew what I was planning to say, he had to do this on the fly. Between Maxeem and the Associate Pastor who read the Scriptures for us, it appears the Lord blessed as I preached. Only the Lord could have worked this out. I think Maxeem was probably the most relieved of all when we finished and he made a hasty exit. He did a great job and Wayne Tapscott was able to catch him to thank him before he left for which I was grateful.

For my Faith Family friends, you would have been like me today, feeling like a proud grandpa or dad seeing Carly leading worship on the keyboard and vocals and Jack backing her up on the guitar in Russian! Carly is in 8th grade and Jack is in 6th grade. It was all I could to do keep from weeping watching these two serving our Lord Jesus Christ this way. What was amazing was they were singing praise songs in Russian that we would recognize in English, including "This is the air I breathe", "Blessed Assurance", and "God of Wonders". While it was being sung in Russian, I was singing in English and it was wonderful.

After I finished preaching on "The Urgency of Repentance" from  Acts 17:30-31. Pastor Andrei

sang a Russian song about repentance and another leader in church spent about 20 minutes challenging believers to tithe from many Scriptures and ended up sharing the Gospel again before they took up the offering! 

We returned to the Cherry's apartment for a Saturday night English club they lead for Russians who want to learn English through a Bible Study. Many times unbelievers come to this but tonight, it was four young women who are believers. We had pizza after the Bible Study and then 45 minute Metro ride back to our hotel, changed trains 3 times and our faithful Navigator Vince Hammond has steered us safely back every night. 

I'd post pictures, but I'm beat. Maybe tomorrow. We attend another Russian Baptist Church tomorrow (Sunday) and then a visit with the Pastor who apparently is the Precept Director for Russia. I hear he's an amazing expositor of the word. There is a huge need here for the love of Jesus Christ. Believers here describe salvation not by someone praying a prayer or walking an aisle, the say "He or she has repented." Believe all you want in their minds, it is whether or not you've repented. The sadness is people's faces as they trudge through life without Christ breaks my heart. The Cherry's are heroes to me. They are investing their lives into the Russian people so they may know Christ. It will be long, hard difficult work, but God is faithful to bring the harvest. We must pray, we must continue to give, but most of all we must continue to come to Russia.

To my Calvary family, I miss you and I will be praying for you as you gather in worship tomorrow. Wally Yocum will be be preaching and I know he will challenge and encourage you in the word. I'm looking forward to returning to be home with you, I love you and thank God for your heart and love for Jesus through missions.

Blessings in Christ,

 
Pastor Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

  www.calvarybelair.com

 

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

The one who came back to say thanks...

By the time this article in our Way Newsletter appears in your mailbox, Easter weekend will be over and I will be in Moscow Russia on a mission/vision trip along with Wayne Tapscott and Vince Hammond.  I’ll talk about the Russian trip in a bit. In thinking about all of our activities with Good Friday, the Pancake Breakfast, Easter Egg Hunt (including all you who donated candy and eggs), our Palm Sunday musical with our choir, orchestra, praise band, childcare workers, ushers, flower committee and the myriad of volunteers to make all of this possible, well I wanted to just say thanks. I’m constantly reminded of the ten lepers Jesus healed from that awful disease and of that group of ten, only one came back to say thanks. I’ve determined in my life, I may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound like superman, but I can be thankful. I’ve determined I will have “an attitude of gratitude” and I want to be like that one leper who took time to say thanks. So if you volunteered or helped in any way, let me tell you that I appreciate you so very much for volunteering and serving however you helped out. I also want to say thanks to you who went out of your way to greet visitors and engage them to make welcome here at Calvary. This church truly is something special and it is my joy to serve as your senior pastor.  I can honestly say there is no place, any place, in any case, quite like or as special as this place! (Say that 5 times fast!). We had a wonderful weekend celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I marvel at God’s goodness to us.  Somehow “thanks” here doesn’t seem to be enough, but I’m banking on our Heavenly Father to reward you appropriately in Heaven as you’ve been storing up treasure there.  

On Wednesday 4-7-10, Wayne, Vince and I departed for Moscow Russia. We are going to see Rhenn and Terry Cherry, their two kids Carly and Jack. The Cherry’s were members of our church in Houston at Faith Family Baptist Church under Pastor David Lino where I served as his associate pastor. I knew there was something special about the Cherry’s when I met them as you could just tell in their family, the Lord had done a miracle. Rhenn was a corporate executive with a major energy corporation and was on his way to being extremely wealthy on the fast track up the corporate ladder. There were some problems in his company with the head executives that he didn’t know about and the corporate dream life he was living crashed down around them when the company declared bankruptcy and went under. Rhenn was one of the last officers to go down with the ship so to speak and had the responsibility to help relocate employees if possible, handle the gut-wrenching process of laying off people he knew,  worked with and cared about, and then finally, he turned in his stuff and he was done also. During all this, the Lord got Rhenn’s attention under the ministry of Pastor David as we affectionately call him. God called Rhenn, Terry, Carly and Jack to be missionaries in Moscow Russia. Rhenn enrolled in the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Houston to prepare for the mission field. The Cherry’s received an appointment with our international mission board (IMB) and after graduation, left most of their earthly possessions behind, packed what they could put in crates and moved to Russia. For the last several years, they’ve been in heavy training in language school, and now have their assignment in Moscow with Rhenn supervising a group of IMB missionaries in Russia. I’ve been watching their ministry and I’m confident God has His hands on this special family. Our purpose for this trip is to see how we can partner with the Cherry’s in their work, specifically among Russian Baptist Churches to make disciples in Moscow. On 4-10-10 I will be preaching in a new church start called “Dedication Church”. It will be my first opportunity to preach overseas with a translator so I would appreciate your prayers and that the Lord would speak through me. On Sunday, we’ll be visiting another Russian Baptist Church to explore how we can assist these strategic churches before currently open doors might close in the future. While the door is open, we want to get involved as the Lord leads and if it is his will. Would you pray for the three of us to have wisdom and discernment as to the Lord’s leading and that we’ll be a blessing to the Cherry’s, and the pastors of these two key churches? You may have seen there was a terrorist bombing in a Moscow subway on Monday March 29^th.  From what I hear, there is much fear and terror in Moscow and if you have no hope in the risen Savior, this is understandable. I can’t wait to tell you all about it upon our return. In the mean time, thanks in advance for praying, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

When hope is lost...

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is the adventure of Paul and Luke in Acts 27 where Paul is a prisoner being transported to Rome on a ship for trial and they get caught in the middle of a Nor’easter. I love this chapter because I’m fascinated by Paul’s ability to be a leader and a man of profound influence even though he’s a prisoner. The other morning in my quiet time, I was on a roll pulling out leadership principles from Paul’s example in this chapter that I’ll develop into a sermon or seminar series someday. But what struck me was Luke’s statement in 27:20 where they had not seen sun nor stars for many days, he makes an unbelievably sad statement: “all hope that we would be saved was finally lost.” As I meditated on that statement, I thought about the myriad of struggles I know of in our church family with people being deathly ill, major surgeries, and catastrophic injuries with long roads to recovery. I also thought of families who are walking through serious crisis with their children, members who have some serious challenges in their businesses and jobs, the possibilities of being laid off or having to lay people off as a boss. Meeting this week with some elderly prospects who’ve visited Calvary and the heartache  they carry in their current church situation and the profound sadness they have at the thought of having to find a new church at this stage of their lives. As I thought of all the difficulties my sheep the Lord has entrusted me with are experiencing, I could feel the stress, pressure and burdens building as I read again “all hope that we would be saved was finally lost.” After my quiet time, I began to get dressed to head to the office and turned on the news to catch up on the bad news out in the world. I don’t know why I bother, it would be more depressing to listen to all the garbage going on, but I subjected myself to it anyway. I was still thinking about Luke’s statement: “all hope that we would be saved was finally lost.” As I stood there shaving, staring at myself in the mirror, I was talking to God about all this stuff going on, praying for many of you by name, asking God to take these burdens, for His grace and peace to be upon our church family in the midst of trials, I could feel the stress and weight of the world being lifted off my shoulders. The blessed Holy Spirit reminded me of recent studies through Revelation and that we’ve already won, He reminded me of Jesus’ promise: “I will not leave you nor forsake you.” Reminding me also of Jesus’ promise to His disciples, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Looking outside the window next to me, I saw the sun already ablaze, the sky was clear blue, seeing buds forming on trees in the woods behind my house, I gazed up into the expanse of space and thanked the Lord for who He is, knowing that my Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father and at that moment, He was making intercession, praying to the Father for me and for all of you! The Lord knows all of the hurts, trials, pressures and struggles you and I are experiencing. The need for hope in our church and society is profound, but I would remind you that Jehovah God is bigger than all that stuff and He’s inviting you to talk to Him about it. Paul was one of 276 people in a desperate situation & he encouraged the other 275 people on this ship that He had a word from the Lord that they would be saved. I got a word from the Lord that morning too, and I walked out into the day walking in confidence that my God is in charge and He’s walking with me and “hopelessness” just becomes incredible “hope”! This is not a dream, a fantasy, not naivety, but the calm assurance that I’m securely in God’s care and that I can count on His provision. Oh what a blessing to walk with God through the good bad and the downright ugly. The people around your circle of influence desperately need hope and you have the keys to share it with them if you walk with God daily through prayer and consistent Bible Study. Paul’s hope and confidence in God was contagious and mine and yours can be also in a world that desperately needs it. So take courage, be strengthened and know that all hope is not lost that we can be and will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ, not just for eternal salvation, but through the storms and trials of life.  “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1^st Peter 5:7). I thought I’d spread a little hope, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Where Great Things Are Happening...

I’m a product in many ways of Dr. Bill Sutton, my pastor at First Baptist Church in McAllen Texas because it was under his ministry I heard God’s call upon my life to the Gospel Ministry as a pastor. I learned so much from Brother Bill as we call him and he is a tremendous leader I love dearly. One of the things Brother Bill would say on Sunday mornings as he welcomed people to FBC McAllen was “Welcome to First Baptist Church where great things are happening.” It was true. God was moving and working and great things were happening. In my Quiet Time, I’ve been reading through the Book of Acts and you’d have to be nearly in a coma to not see the great things happening in the early church because God’s Holy Spirit was at work in and through the people. The Jerusalem Church was exploding with growth as they went from about 120 people to 3000 by Acts 2:41 and the Bible says that “the Lord added daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). By the time Acts 4 begins, the Bible makes a point to tell us there were about 5000 men who were part of the church (4:4) and some commentators estimate the real attendance to be close to 25,000 people when women and children are factored into the mix! Honestly, that makes my chest hurt just thinking about the stress of a church that size. But because it was the Lord’s doing, His grace was sufficient for the humans involved and it’s His Church to grow as He sees fit.

l say all this to highlight for us that wherever the Lord is working “great things are happening.” It is evident to your leadership team here at Calvary that the Lord is working and great things are indeed happening. We continue to see guests and visitors checking us out nearly every week. Many are new visitors and many are coming back for a second look. Our Deacon Chairman brother Ernie Owens pointed out to the deacon body in our last meeting we need to be thinking and praying about the growth the church is experiencing and the logistics of space as we have more people come. In another meeting with the Church Council Brother Ernie said our motto needs to be “Semper Gumby” – which he translated as “Always Flexible”.  I love that!  I’ve said for many years in the places I’ve ministered we have 3 rules, be flexible, be flexible and in case we forget the first two, the third is “be flexible.” Just to give you an example, Our worship attendance average on Sunday for January was 317 and in February was 349. What’s amazing is this includes the Sunday we had to cancel  February 7^th for the blizzard. Last week in Bible Study, we had 285 people and our worship attendance was 375! Many people define success simply by the numbers of people in attendance and if the church is meeting the budget. That’s not how I see success in the Book of Acts as I’ve highlighted above, the Lord adding to the church daily those who were being saved is part of the success, but as the rest of the book demonstrates, the success is in the disciples that were being made and how they carried the gospel around the known world. When disciples are being made, the Lord is working to transform lives.

I need your help as we grow larger in a couple of areas which will help us as the Lord adds to His Church. Remember to always be flexible. Each “number” represents a person that Christ died for and wants to make a disciple. This means we need to be willing to include new people we don’t know. I was so proud this past Sunday as I saw several of our members speaking to guests at length after church. We need to be sensitive to this especially as the weather improves and Easter is just around the corner.  I know it is not comfortable to be the one to initiate the greeting but let me encourage you to reach out quickly to guests you don’t know to welcome them. I also need you to be flexible if your class needs to be rearranged to add more chairs. An 8 foot table may be nice to hold your Bible and coffee but it takes up a huge amount of space and keeps guests from getting plugged in to Bible Study because there aren’t enough seats. Those tables may have to go to help us make disciples by freeing up space. I also need you to fill out our screening paperwork to protect our kids and volunteer to work in our children’s ministry. Last Sunday for extended session, we had nearly 30 preschoolers! I know you may have raised your kids, but that’s precisely why we need your wisdom and help to minister down there during worship.  Our Preschool Director Mandi Yocum has a goal to have enough volunteers so you would only need to work 1 time every 8 weeks. Many hands make light work. From my little corner of the world to yours where great things are happening, “Semper Gumby”!

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Giving Glory to God...

One of my favorite hymns is “To God be the Glory” because it’s a reminder to celebrate the work of God in bringing us to redemption. It challenges us to praise the Lord, to let the earth hear His voice and let the people rejoice. The final phrase of the chorus is “Oh come to the Father, thro’ Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done.” Well this past Sunday, we saw the Lord move in tremendous ways in both services. First of all, I challenged us to be faithful to catch up on our tithes and offerings because we had to cancel the previous week  and only had one service the week before. God’s people responded and our offering was $36,596.53 which is huge considering we still had a number of people who could not attend because of the conditions. Our weekly budget need is $18,002.00 so we exceeded our budget need for the last two Sundays by a little over $296.00. In a tough economy, with lots of added expenses for groceries, snow removal and all the expenses that goes into dealing with a blizzard of the magnitude we’ve experienced in the last two weeks, I believe a holy hallelujah is in order to praise God for providing for His Bride this way. Many churches are struggling financially at this time and cancelling a service nearly means disaster for them because typically people don’t catch up on their tithes and offerings. I’m so proud of our church family for being obedient to bring the Lord’s tithe and an offering to Him on the Lord’s Day but this is not our doing, it is the Lord working in our lives and for that we must give Him praise!

Secondly, we must praise and give God the glory for the movement of the Holy Spirit in our services. Because it was Valentine’s Day, I preached on God’s Amazing Love from John 3:16 and at the end, I challenged the church to take two sets of two cards we had made, one a “My Influence Card” and the other was a simple “Invite Card.” With the influence card, we were to list the names of 3 people we believe to be lost without Christ. When we finished that card, we were to keep one as a reminder for us, and come forward and place the other card in a basket as an offering to God that we were making a commitment to pray for an opportunity to invite those lost people to come to Calvary and that they would come to know the Lord this year. The “Invite Cards” are simple business cards that we will use to invite people to be our guest at Calvary. It has our worship times, church info and a map of how to get here.  I had no idea what to expect but shortly, one by one, people began to leave their seats and walk forward with cards in hand, then groups of people began to come forward, whole families, young people, older people, children. In both services, I saw people with tears in their eyes as they were burdened for lost friends, family, co-workers, or even mere acquaintances, they were going to pray for to come to know Jesus.  At the end of the services, I held up that basket of names and we prayed right then for these people to come to know Jesus. This is the very heartbeat of God but sadly it is not the heartbeat of many Christians. Winning people to Christ is not a natural thing for us to do. I asked people to pray that God would help us see people the way He does, they are either saved or lost and all of the ways we segregate people do not matter. I was so amazed to see the way the Holy Spirit moved in people’s hearts.  We had 223 cards turned in with at least one name on the card and 210 cards with  3 or more names printed on the card.

Most of our invite cards were taken but we’ll have more for you to pick up here at church each week. This means we’ll continue to see guests come through the doors at Calvary. Remember church family, each one of these people is someone Jesus died to save. We only get one chance to make a first impression so be sensitive to guests, people you don’t know and don’t recognize. It matters not how they’re dressed, what they have tattooed or pierced, whether they are wearing a suit or their Sunday best and look like they stepped out of a magazine, if you don’t know them, please greet them warmly and welcome them to Calvary. Then pray that they’ll respond to the Gospel message I’ll be bringing that day.

I want to praise God for working in our hearts and lives, for challenging us and stretching us and I’m so thrilled to see the Holy Spirit’s movement here. Glory to God, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

The Theology of Snow...

Working the dumb end of a snow shovel gives you time to think, and think and think some more because of the amazing and record amount of snow we got here in Maryland. It snowed for roughly 29 hours straight and the results are incredible. The news people were urging people to be careful saying this is a heartattack making snow storm - meaning the weight of it and the exertion of shoveling it could send you into cardiac arrest. I have to admit, I was extremely frustrated because I used to have the equipment to deal with such a storm when I was a pastor in New England - a ginormous snowblower that would cut through the worst New England blizzards had to offer like a hot knife through butter. I gave it to my lost neighbor and witnessed to him once again when we were moving to Houston. The more I shoveled by hand, the more frustrated I became because I felt like I was using a soup spoon to empty the ocean of snow blanketing my driveway.

  I was also frustrated in that this is the second weekend in a row our weekend church activities had to be postponed, rescheduled or cancelled completely because of the snow. I talked to the Lord alot about it wondering why the business world doesn't get interrupted during the week day but church does with snow on the weekend. After all, the Lord can control when this happens and I know He's not oblivous to the fact His people assemble on Sunday. Well a couple of thoughts came to mind that I thought I'd share today since we're not going anywhere soon and we aren't in church.

  First, I thought the Lord is serious about the 10 commandments, even in the 21st century. The 4th commandment is "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy" (Ex.20:8). The thought occured to me that the vast majority of people in our community and nation for that matter have no regard for the Lord's Day whatsoever. The Lord helped me see how He could orchestrate it to where people had no choice but to stay home on the Lord's Day by sending enough snow to where they couldn't go anywhere - no mall, no shopping, nothing. Stay home and watch my power. Whether humans remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy or not, God still does.

  Secondly, I researched what the Bible has to say about snow and found some interesting things. Only twice in Scripture is actual snowfall recorded and these both refer to the same incident. 2nd Samuel 23:20 says "Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day." (See also 1st Chron. 11:22). This warrior was one of David's mighty men of valor. This made me thankful for our men and women of valor who work in emergency services and serve the public even in the middle of a storm. I saw police officers on patrol in my neighborhood, a fire truck drove in on a call also, not to mention the city workers plowing, and nurses & doctors caring for people at the hospital. I heard a news account of a national guard soldier who had to rescue a stranded motorist in a humvee and said it was scary driving even in a humvee. I'm sure David was thankful for Benaiah and I hope you're thankful for these modern "Benaiah's". I prayed for those firemen and policemen I saw while I was holding the dumb end of my shovel.
 
When the Lord was helping old Job see the reality of His might and power by asking Job if he knew of the inner workings of the universe, He said in Job 38:22-23 "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the storehouses of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?" In other words, the Lord is reminding me "there's more where this came from and I have my purposes in it." As I was shoveling with my little shovel, working for hours and barely making a dent, I bowed in my heart and mind and told the Lord I was in awe of His might, His power and His majesty. I told Him I fear Him and acknowledged how small I am and how great He is and continues to be. I thanked him for His grace and mercy in the middle of the storm and His provision for us. I guess you could say I was worshipping the Lord on the end of that shovel.
 
Thirdly, as I write this, the brightness of the sun and snow is overwhelming to my already squinty eyes. It's hard for me to gaze very long at it as my eyes cannot handle the brightness. It simply a reminder that our God is pure and Holy, the Scriptures describe Him this way:
Daniel 7:9 "I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;"
Mark 9:3 "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them." This is referring to when Jesus was transfigured in the presence of His disciples to show them a glimpes of His glory.
Revelation 1:14 "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;" This is how Jesus appeared to John the Revelator who saw Jesus in all His glory in eternity future. All of these demonstrate the purity and holiness of God.
 
Finally, the Scriptures share with us God's desire that we too be holy, clean and pure, like God Himself. In Psalm 51:7, after David's great sin with Bathsheeba and his murder of Uriah, He said "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Isn't that an awesome description of the cleansing power of God and the forgiveness He offers? In Isaiah 1:18 the Prophet said "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." There is no sin you've ever committed or will commit that God cannot forgive and cleanse. (Yes - I know of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit - that's a different discussion for a different day.) 
 
The story is told years ago of a woman in Wales who was walking with her infant baby she had wrapped in a blanket. Sadly, an awful blizzard swept in before she could get home safely. The next day, searchers found her frozen body partially buried in the snow. They did not understand why she had no clothes on when they found her but as they lifted her frozen body, they found a blanket and to their shock, they found that infant child, wrapped snuggly in his mother's clothes and blanket alive and well. She used her own clothing and body warmth to shield and protect that child so that he might live. In the midst of the tragedy of a white out blizzard, life was found because of the sacrifice and amazing love of a dedicated mother. That's how our sins can be made white as snow, because Jesus laid down His life, shed His blood and covered us so that we might be saved. There's great theology to be found in snow. Theology is simply the study of God, so while we're snowed think about the lessons you can learn in studying God via the teaching tool of snow. Something to think about, from my snowed in corner of the world to yours....

  Pastor Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

 www.calvarybelair.com

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

The Manifest Presence & Power of God...

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Pastor’s Conference hosted by the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville Florida. It was wonderful time of refreshing for me spiritually to hear some of the greatest preachers of our day and a time of intense learning and understanding of the current trends and issues in the world today. It was encouraging also to dialogue with other pastors and ministries about what the Lord is doing in and through these churches and pastors. At one of the sessions I attended, Henry Blackaby, the author of “Experiencing God” spoke to us about “God’s Conditions for Revival.” Many of you would be familiar with this study but many of you may not know that the Lord has profoundly used this “Experiencing God” study in so many incredible ways literally around the world. Dr. Blackaby shared how the prison warden at the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana went through the study and in turn made the workbook available to all the inmates at his prison who wanted one, particularly focused on those inmates awaiting execution on death row. What has been happening in that prison is an absolute miracle as many of these inmates have come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior and revival is happening there. Dr. Blackaby shared from Matt.16:18-19 of Jesus’ promise to build His Church in such a way that the gates of Hell will not be victorious against the church. He made the point that the manifest presence and power of God will cause the doorposts of Hell to fall down around where His church is engaged in Kingdom business. However, he warned that revival does not happen unless the church repents first and becomes engaged in significant prayer efforts to learn of God’s will and work in their community.

Later in the conference we heard from Jim Cymbala, Pastor of the famous Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. Pastor Cymbala’s church regularly has about 2000 people who come to their Tuesday night prayer meeting where the people gather to pray for God’s manifest presence and power to be made known there. Pastor Cymbala preached from Acts 12 regarding Peter’s imprisonment while “constant prayer was being offered to God for him by the church” (Acts 12:5). As I listened to these men speak about the need for prayer in the life of God’s people, I was reminded of a paper I wrote in seminary tracing the influence of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon in London.  It is well documented that Spurgeon had hundreds of people praying for him in the basement of the Metropolitan Tabernacle nearly constantly. Spurgeon called it the “boiler room” and affirmed that the ministry of those prayer warriors pleading with God to work in mighty ways to bring people to faith in Christ in London and literally around the world the key to what God was doing there at that time.

As I meditated and thought about prayer in the life of our church and the desire to see the manifest presence and power of God taking place in this community, I wondered why we don’t see the gates of Hell crumbling around us. I wondered why we don’t see people being saved and baptized on a regular basis. Sadly, I also wondered how much of what we do around Calvary can be done and is being done without the manifest presence and power of God? In other words, how much of our ministry could and would take place if God didn’t show up? These thoughts convict me in my own life and I’m reminded of Jesus’ admonition to His disciples in John 15:5 that He is the vine, we are the branches and those who abide in Him bear much fruit. Jesus also said “without Me, you can do nothing.” Oh sure, we have much activity, we have a full calendar, but how much of it depends on the manifest presence and power of God? Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying all of what we’re doing isn’t bathed in prayer because I know we have people praying, but I am trying to make us think in an honest fashion about prayer or the lack of it.

I believe we will see and experience the manifest presence and power of God if we will be willing to humble ourselves and pray. I will be intensifying my prayer efforts and I am asking you to join with me. I will be asking God to allow us see the gates of Hell crumble around us and that lives will be transformed by His grace and mercy. I will be praying that God will allow us at Calvary to see His mighty work, that His power and glory will be made known in this place and that His kingdom will be expanded, and that the Lord will do a fresh work in all of our lives. I long for the manifest presence and power of God, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

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Posted via email from Pastor Ralph